There is beauty to be found in many places, and I am actively looking for it.
Last week, I found beauty on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. Beauty in the spring flowers that have braved chilly weather. Beauty in the reflecting pond with a single goose paddling around the water. And beauty in a sculpture depicting the Five Wise Virgins of the Biblical parable of the five wise and five foolish virgins that was just installed outside the Relief Society building.
I love the striking sculpture depicting five women of different ethnicities, ages and heights, with their lamps lit and waiting for the Bridegroom (Christ) to arrive. I love that the artist who created the sculpture is Ben Hammond, who also created the Martha Hughes Cannon statue that now stands in the U.S. Capitol’s Emancipation Hall in Washington, D.C. I belong to a worldwide church, one now numbering more than 17.5 million members across more than 160 countries. I love that Hammond worked to capture some of the many different backgrounds of Latter-day Saints — specifically Relief Society members — with the five women he depicted.
During the recent general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, several speakers referenced the parable of the Ten Virgins. General Relief Society President Camille Johnson was the first. She spoke of both the state and the parable, noting that “while the women represented as the five wise virgins are not sharing the oil of their conversion, they are sharing their light as they hold up their lamps, which are full of oil and burning brightly.”
“Significantly,” she said, “they are depicted supporting one another — shoulder to shoulder, an arm around another, making eye contact and beckoning others to come to the light.”
At the dedication of the statue, President Johnson said: “I think this statue is a beautiful reflection of being disciples of Jesus Christ.” She also spoke of the way the five women were depicted. “I think that the diversity represented in the sculpture is reflective of the women of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” she said. “That was important: that every woman who comes to the sculpture and here to Temple Square and in front of the Relief Society Building will feel like they’re a part of something big, and they’ll see themselves in the sculpture.”
Her words and the statue make me reflect again on my own life. Do I keep my own lamp of conversion filled? Do I share the light with others? Do I feel like I belong, in Relief Society and in the church? Do I reach out and make sure that others around me also feel like they belong, or am I a roadblock in their way?
Elder Dale G. Renlund of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles likewise spoke of the parable of the Ten Virgins in talking about preparing to meet the Savior. “The essential lesson of this parable of the ten virgins,” he taught, “is that we are wise when we accept the gospel, seek to have the Holy Ghost with us, and avoid deception. The five wise virgins could not help those without oil; no one can accept the gospel, take the Holy Ghost as a guide, and avoid deception on our behalf. We have to do this for ourselves.”
Elder Renlund also spoke of two companion parables included in Mark 25 in the New Testament. The second is the parable of the talents and the third is the parable of the sheep and the goats. In the third parable, Christ describes how the sheep will sit on his right hand and become heirs in his kingdom.
“The distinguishing characteristic,” Elder Renlund said, “was whether they fed Him when He was hungry, gave Him drink when He was thirsty, housed Him when He was a stranger, clothed Him when He was naked, and visited Him when He was sick or imprisoned.” Jesus Christ “expects us to use our gifts, talents, and abilities to bless the lives of Heavenly Father’s children ... especially the most vulnerable and needy.”
That brings me back around to the statue of the Five Wise Virgins and President Johnson. As she prepared to step into her church calling as Relief Society president, she quoted Sister Reyna I. Aburto, who previously served as second counselor in the Relief Society general presidency. “Anywhere and everywhere we go, we are always part of Relief Society as we strive to fulfill its divine purpose, which is for women to accomplish God’s work in individual as well as collective ways by providing relief: ‘relief of poverty, relief of illness; relief of doubt, relief of ignorance — relief of all that hinders … joy and progress.’”
For me, that beautiful sculpture on Temple Square will always be a reminder to me to keep my lamp filled with the oil of conversion, share that light with others, provide relief in any and every way I can and finally, to reach out to my sisters anywhere in the world to help them feel welcome in the “church of joy.”
